Per capita income to be $4,000 by 2025: FM

Finance Minister P Chidambaram is expecting per capita income to touch $4,000 by 2025 "shattering all forecasts by global economic pundits."

"A BRIC report has forecast India's per capita income would touch $800 by 2010 and $1,149 by 2015. We have exploded this assumption as our per capita income has already touched $1,000 this year, and we expect it to touch $4,000 by 2025," Chidambaram said.

He was speaking here last night after releasing a book, We are Like That Only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India, by Rama Bijapurkar.

"Today, one cannot get a farm labourer for below Rs 80, carpenter won't be available for less than Rs 150 and a senior mason will charge Rs 200. People are demanding and getting more. This aspiration is driving consumption, which will make India a middle income country in the next 15-20 years.

"India is a fast changing market, which cannot be captured in a series of articles, essays or books. By the time a book is written, edited and published, much of what has been written would become outdated. This makes India an exciting place to be in," Chidambaram said.